Colin Kaepernick on the 49ers’ new receivers, the Red Zone, not talking about his contract publicly, and moving on from the Miami incident

SANTA CLARA–Colin Kaepernick was noticeably talkative on the field during the 49ers’ OTA session today–practically taking command of one Red Zone session all by himself, talking at length with new WR Brandon Lloyd and firing strikes through the breeze.

Then the 49ers QB was relaxed and very chatty (for him) in a 10-minute session with reporters afterwards, addressing all topics, or at least cordially deferring comments on the issues he didn’t want to directly address at length.

That would be the Miami incident, which seems to be ready to go away completely though it’s in the Miami DA’s hands now. “I did nothing wrong in that incident,” Kaepernick said.

And Kaepernick’s potential contract extension, which he said would be handled by his agents.

Advertisement

But otherwise, Kaepernick was loose all the way around–he seemed quite confident throwing to Anquan Boldin, Lloyd, Michael Crabtree (who did most or all of the individual drills but not the team drills) and others (Stevie Johnson was not out there, apparently with a minor injury).

And Kaepernick had no tense moments dealing with us, either.

—COLIN KAEPERNICK gaggle transcript/

-Q: Having all those new receivers looks like it’d probably be fun.

-KAEPERNICK: Yeah, I’m very excited about the new targets. Stevie’s been looking good, Brandon’s been looking good, Ellington’s been looking good. A lot of weapons on this field now.

-Q: How do you create chemistry with the new guys?

-KAEPERNICK: I think it’s a different situation with Stevie and Brandon. They both have had a lot of success in the league. So that’s something I want to work with them with, what they’re doing. And that’s something our team wants to do as well.

Whereas Ellington, you have to get him more adapted to the system and really get him on the same page as us. And let him do his thing once he gets comfortable.

-Q: Neither Johnson or Lloyd are known as speed-burners. How important is this time of year to get a feel for the way run routes?

-KAEPERNICK: I think that’s something with both of them it’s been a pretty easy learning curve for me to read their body language, because they’re someone like Anquan, like Crab, that have easy body language to read–when they’re going to come out of their breaks, and they do things so smoothly that it makes it a lot easier on the quarterback.

-Q: Noticed that you were communicating a lot with Brandon in the Red Zone. What’s being communicated?

And he’s had success down there. So if there’s something we can pick up from him, how he runs routes, how he sets things up, that’s something we want to take and try to make it ours.

-Q: Why is the Red Zone tough?

-KAEPERNICK: Just the confinement of space. I mean, you’re playing from your own 30, you have 70 yards of field to play with. You get inside the 10, you have 20 yards. So space is the biggest thing down there.

-Q: You were noticeably vocal out there today. Is it that you just feel more comfortable saying now?

-KAEPERNICK: I think this is the time of year where you can be vocal and you can work on things a lot more because you don’t have to play Sunday. So if you want to experiment with things, if you want to try things out, now is the time that we want to do that and see if we can get something new that’s going to work for our offense.

-Q: Finding that guys want to hear what you have to say?

-KAEPERNICK: It’s not necessarily always me trying to give advice or necessarily command things. It’s a lot of times just a conversation as far as, ‘What are you seeing? How would you run this route?’ Especially with someone like Brandon and Stevie.

-Q: How much of it is a revitalization for you, a new start?

-KAEPERNICK: It’s always great to be back on the field, be around your teammates. You spend two, three months not around them. And to get back on the field and start playing football again, it’s always great.

-Q: Why do you think there have been struggles in the Red Zone?

-KAEPERNICK: I think we just haven’t made plays. I think we’ve had opportunities and I think a lot of times it’s just a miscue here, a miscue there. And I think if we clean those things up we’ll be a lot more efficient this year.

-Q: What can you say about Antoine Bethea’s leadership?

-KAEPERNICK: He has a very similar demeanor to Donte (Whitner), as far as he’s pretty quiet, pretty reserved, but when he steps on the field he’s about business. And I think that’s something that our defense kind of has about them. They really don’t talk too much until you step on the field and then you know they’re there.

-Q: How much has the way the last two seasons have ended–specifically in the Red Zone–weighed on you?

-KAEPERNICK: I think that’s something I constantly think about. I mean, not just Red Zone but my play in general.

How can I improve? How can I be better throughout the game? Whether it’s taking a check down, whether it’s making a big throw at the end of the Championship Game. What can I do different to make sure I’m making those plays?

-Q: During Super Bowl week, you said it was important to you to be fair with your contract talks. Where are you with that? The 49ers have been clear they want to get you signed to an extension before camp. Do you expect that to happen and what do you mean by fair?

-KAEPERNICK: I’m letting my agents handle all of that. I’m worried about being out here, trying to get better with my teammates and get read for the season.

-Q: Would it clear your mind to have it done before the start of training camp?

-Q: This time last year, Crabtree was hurt. Do you see maybe with all the new receivers that this could be a strength of the offense and things could be tweaked to take advantage of that?

-KAEPERNICK: That’ll be something that the coaches will have to decide. But I think it’s something–a position we’re definitely stronger at this year. And I think we have a lot of weapons at that position that we can use in a lot of different situations.

-Q: You have a lot of running backs, too. What are your impressions of those guys, starting with Marcus Lattimore?

-KAEPERNICK: Yeah, he’s someone I think everyone’s been pretty impressed with from the time he stepped out here, as well as Carlos (Hyde). They both have come out, they’ve been true professionals when they step out on the field. They know what they’re doing and they’re doing everything they can to try to be on the field.

-Q: You’ve said after the Miami incident that you’ve learned how some people can spread rumors and false information. Can you explain what actually happened out there and clear up the information?

-KAEPERNICK: Well, the district attorney has the information today. At this point I’m going to let them handle their business.

I did nothing wrong in that incident. So I want to do everything I can to let the DA close this matter.

-Q: Are you eager to have that resolved two months later?

-KAEPERNICK: Very eager to have the matter closed, but once again, just going to let the DA handle their business and wait for their decision.

-Q: Not specific to your case, what do you think of the public perception of a team? Is that important, do you worry about the way people are thinking about this team and the players on it?

-KAEPERNICK: I think everyone in this building knows the character of the players that we have here. And everyone that’s here is here to play football and here to try to help us win a Super Bowl. And that’s all everyone here is worried about.

-Q: What can you do individually to improve the Red Zone results?

-KAEPERNICK: Just clean up little things, whether it’s footwork, whether it’s making quicker decisions… those are the type of things that I want to improve on to try to make this offense more efficient.

-Q: How were you throwing it today?

-KAEPERNICK: Today was a so-so day. Thought I could’ve made a couple better decisions. But it’s Day 2, so we’re going to keep getting better.

-Q: Harbaugh said yesterday was a good day offensively.

-KAEPERNICK: Yeah, yesterday was a really good day. We’re going to keep working though and we’re going to keep getting better.

-Q: During the period when you couldn’t work with the coaches, did you work with a throwing guru or anybody like that?

-KAEPERNICK: No, just kept working on the stuff that we do. I mean, it’s something that Coach has mentioned to me, that ‘you need to be able to do what we do within our system.’

As long as my footwork is good and I’m delivering the ball quickly and precisely, he’s happy with what I’m doing.

-Q: So you knew exactly what you had to work on?

-KAEPERNICK: Yes.

-Q: You didn’t have Crabtree last off-season. What’s it like to be working with him this off-season?

-KAEPERNICK: I think it’s picking up where we left off. I think also at this point he’s healthier than where he was. He’s had more time to rehab, more time to be running and spend time getting in shape and working on routes and different things like that. It’s always exciting to have 15 on the field.

-Q: You did some work with Anquan in Florida?

-KAEPERNICK: Yes. Did some work with Anquan and Quinton. Both of them come out, they threw with me a couple times a week and got a lot of work in there down there.

-Q: Did you know what to expect from Brandon Lloyd, and as he surprised you at all out here?

-KAEPERNICK: I somewhat knew what to expect. I had seen plays he had made. But I hadn’t seen him on a consistent basis. I mean, coming off of a year off of football, he’s been amazing out here. Very smooth, very disciplined with his routes and an easy target to throw to.